Three Doctors, two Companions and one TARDIS
by sevenofmine
Summary: Three doctors and two companions meet in one TARDIS. As they soon figure out, this constellation is highly unstable and into the bargain, they are orbiting around a black hole, being drawn closer every second. Who could be more responsible for this than the Master? And how many Doctors does it actually need to solve this little problem? Please review and guess which Doctors!


[Based on the computer game Physicus]

The TARDIS landed very ungentle. The Doctor was thrown against his console and then hit the floor.

"Are you doing that on purpose?" he asked his usually trustworthy machine while getting back up. "So where are we now?" he muttered to himself, always forgetting that he was travelling alone – again. "Environmental controls, checked. Pressure, radiation, checked. Life signs, check...that are few... Now, where are we?"

He pressed some buttons and the identification of the surroundings began. After a few nanoseconds, the data appeared on the screen. "Not where I wanted to go," he sighed. "Next time perhaps," he said and stroke the main console. "But first I want to know why there're hardly life signs out there. It's quite a habitable planet and due to its closeness to Earth, it should be inhabited by now." He looked up and again noticed that he was alone.

He re-checked the date but it still was the 25th century, Human Era. He shrugged his shoulders, grabbed his coat and walked towards the door. When he stepped outside, it was a sunny day, although it was a bit too warm for his taste. Nevertheless, he kept his coat on, perhaps he might encounter some colder regions of this planet. One never knew.

What directly appeared strange was the metal gate only a few meters in front of him. So there _was_ a colony here, he thought and started walking. The gate swung open easily but definitely needed to be oiled. The ground was a mixture of sand and stone and behind the gate he could see buildings starting a hundred meters away from him in the mid of some trees, too few to call it a forest, too many to call it some bushes.

"This is odd," he mumbled to himself, the life signs had not been strong enough to indicate any intelligent population. He walked further and stepped over some fallen trees and stumps. He marched underneath a stone bridge along a dried river bed. The heat had probably caused the water to vaporise. The only noise came from a slight rustling of the few leaves and the summing of the wavering air. Finally, he decided to indeed take off his coat and carry it.

Some metal buildings were seen to his left and he decided to take a closer look. He opened the metal door which slid upwards with a horribly squeaking noise. The inside looked like a repair shop, all kind of tools lay around, but everything was covered in a deep layer of dust. Only little light was shining in and the dust particle in the air were floating silently around. The Doctor coughed until his lungs accepted the conditions of breathing.

"Something is not right..." he muttered and had a complete look around. All kinds of tools, weights, magnets were spread over the tables and shelves. It looked like a physics laboratory. Then something caught his eye. It was a small TV screen, very thick, probably a portable device. Nothing else in this room required any technology, so this piece of probable junk stood out. He quickly walked over and inspected it. Nothing seemed wrong, but it obviously had no power.

He sighed and squatted down. There was a little metal box underneath and a piece of paper was lying on it. He took it and blew away some centimetres of dust. The ink had nearly dried out and was hardly readable, but it definitely said 'Doctor Who'. Interested, he tried to open it but it didn't work. He took out his sonic screwdriver and while applying it on the box, he noticed that it was vacuum locked and therefore hardly to open. Fortunately, his latest screwdriver model had some special features. It gave out a dumb noise, but he could finally open the box.

What he found inside, surprised him even more. There were two cables and a well-preserved lemon. Next to it was a piece of paper, also something scribbled onto it. -Genetically engineered. More power.-

He looked at the lemon again, back onto the paper, and onto the lemon. He took the cables, stuck one metal end of each into the lemon and the other ones into the TV box. He pressed the power-button and snow appeared on the screen. Then, a video began to play and showed a man in a lab. He was talking in a fast way, and often turned around as if feared to be caught.

"Dear Doctor, when you read this, it will already be too late. I don't know where to start with my explanation but the both of us have no time to lose. We were once colonists from Earth, as you might take from the buildings you found abandoned. We were a group of physicists and this planet has special physical conditions that we wanted to explore. Everything worked well, but then a mysterious man appeared, calling himself The Master. We found out that the magnetic and electric fields of this planet have a huge impact on his technology, so he forced us to alter it and specifically design it to drain energy from a machine he called TARDIS.

"While we worked it out, we learnt that he planned to lure someone here to get hold of his TARDIS. This person, his arch-enemy, is you, The Doctor. He wouldn't tell us who you were, and what your name was. But what only is important for you, Doctor, is that the planetary systems affect your TARDIS," the video began to become blurry. "He chose us because we were the best physicists in the quadrant. We even grew this genetically engineered lemon–" the video started to show problems again.

"Doctor, whatever...TARDIS...it affects its system...time...time. When we were done, The Master stopped the planet's rotation with his machine which he had altered to not be affected. He destroyed all evidence. I'm sorry...I fear he'll kill...however...time is important...multi-dimensional shift...quantum...," until the box went out again.

The Doctor sighed heavily and stood up. He thought about bringing the portable TV into the TARDIS, but a strange noise and the smell of burnt cables decided for him that it wouldn't do any good. He walked around in the small factory and tried to think. Great, the Master again. He had only heard quite recently of him...but shouldn't he be dead? Or at least, some kind of gone? It did not make any sense. And even if he was still alive – well, it was clear that he was seeking revenge, but why here? So he had been lured here because...the planet's systems affected the TARDIS technology!

"Oh dear," he muttered and jumped out of the building immediately to run back to his loyal starship. She was still there, where he had left her, but bolts came out of the TARDIS' top lamp and ran into the sky where a thick layer of cloud had been built. It was becoming even hotter than it was before and the water started to vaporise. He pushed the doors open and sighed heavily when he managed to get inside the TARDIS.

But something was wrong. The doors shut behind him with a loud bang, but he didn't notice. Something was terribly wrong here. This was not his TARDIS. At least not his interior. He jumped up some stairs and walked towards the main console. It was flashing and lightening unnaturally so he did not dare to push any buttons.

And suddenly, when he looked up again, he noticed that something was more terribly wrong than he could have imagined. He stared at himself – twice. He directly looked at two previous incarnations of him, both staring back. Startled, all three of them exchanged very surprised looks. But none of them were as surprised as the two companions, who also stood behind 'their' Doctor, not believing that something more incredible than usually could actually happen.

**Please guess which Doctor is the main protagonist here, and also leave comments on who you think the other two Doctors and companions are ;)**


End file.
